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PTI\u2019s Barrister Ali Zafar on Tuesday contended that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was just a \u201crecord keeper\u201d and did not have the power to strip a political party of its electoral symbol as the Peshawar High Court (PHC) took up a petition challenging the watchdog\u2019s decision to revoke the PTI\u2019s \u2018bat\u2019 symbol and nullify its internal polls.<\/p>\n
On December 22, the ECP had decided<\/a> against letting PTI retain its electoral symbol for the February 8 election, saying that it had failed to hold intra-party polls \u2014 which saw Barrister Gohar Ali Khan becoming<\/a> the PTI chairman \u2014 according to its prevailing constitution and election laws.<\/p>\n Subsequently, the PTI had approached the PHC. On Dec 26, the PHC had suspended<\/a> till Jan 9 the ECP\u2019s declaration of the PTI\u2019s intra-party polls as unconstitutional as well as the subsequent revocation of the \u2018bat\u2019 symbol. It had also noted that general elections were scheduled for February 8 and the last date for allotment of election symbols was January 13.<\/p>\n On Dec 30, the electoral watchdog had filed<\/a> a review petition in the PHC, arguing<\/a> that the court had overstepped its jurisdiction. Days later, in a major blow for the PTI, the high court restored<\/a> the ECP\u2019s December 22 order<\/a> that had stripped the party of its symbol.<\/p>\n